Iconic artist Patti Smith made a mark 50 years ago with her iconic first album, Horses, which mixed punk, poetry and performance. She will take the stage June 3 at the College of Charleston Cistern Yard for a special one-time show during Spoleto Festival USA.
When Horses was released in 1975, it opened with the unforgettable words, “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine.” Right from that line, Smith signaled her music would break the usual mold, earning her the title “godmother of punk.”
For Theo Cateforis, an associate professor of music history and cultures at Syracuse University, Horses is still as impactful as it was 50 years ago.
“You do get a sense that Patti Smith is a poet,” he said. “It sounds improvisatory, as if someone is doing a poetry slam with a rock band behind her — and that was unusual.”
Before hip-hop, Smith was the most famous person to use spoken word and rhythm to create her songs. Being in New York City when the arts scene was thriving helped amplify it.
“If she were doing this in the middle of Oklahoma, she’s not going to get the attention she does being aligned with an arts community in New York City,” Cateforis explained. He added that she got swept up into punk through CBGB, the influential East Village music club, “but listening to Horses now, most people wouldn’t say it sounds like a punk record.”
Smith’s music was shaped more by a necessity — to communicate, to compose, to showcase — than by a specific genre. And for all those reasons, Horses paved the way not only for Smith but for a new type of artist.
“It’s important to remember that in 1975, there was no consensus about what punk was. It took shape as a rebellious form,” Cateforis said. “They were allowing people who weren’t traditionally part of the rock landscape into the fold. Patti Smith is a poet, and all of a sudden is crossing over very easily to be a musician.”
Always stood apart from others
Few are better music experts in Charleston than Jim Voigt, better known as “The Critic” on The Bridge 105.5. Smith has always stood apart for him, not just for her influence but also for her humanity.
“Patti Smith. Punk pop poet. An intellectual. An influencer. All true,” Voigt said. “But also human. I was reading her book M Train recently, and I was moved by how, when all is said and done, even an internationally acclaimed artist is seeking the same things as everyone else: connection, compassion and kindness.”
Voigt recalled how Smith succeeded in a way that many of her contemporaries from the CBGB scene never did.
“Patti was kind of the acceptable artist of the NYC, CBGB scene, along with Blondie and Talking Heads,” he said. “Whereas the Ramones, Television and Richard Hell and the Voidoids were barely played on New York City radio, Patti received airplay and was even parodied by Gilda Radner on SNL.”
A godmother to all
This year’s Spoleto performance honors an album that shaped the sound and essence of music. Now celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, Horses continues to echo with its raw, unapologetic energy and lasting impact on female singers.
This year’s Spoleto performance comes five decade after the that shaped the sound and essence of music. Horses continues to echo with its raw, unapologetic energy and lasting impact on female singers.
“I think for women beyond punk, just being involved with making rock music, she encouraged a lot of women to rebel against fitting into stereotypes of what a rock chick is supposed to look like,” Cateforis said.
Not only did Smith become a female rock star, some of the biggest pop stars in the world right now — like Taylor Swift, who sang her name on the 2024 album The Tortured Poets Department — prove her influences have yet to dim.
“How much fits between the eyes of a horse?” asks Smith in “Land: Horses/Land of a Thousand Dances/La Mer (De).”
The answer is 50 years.
IF YOU CAN SNAG A TICKET: Patti Smith plays on June 3 at the College of Charleston Cistern Yard.
Mathilde Refloch is a graduate student in the Goldring Arts Journalism and Communications program at Syracuse University.
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